Born: November 20, 1924, Brooklyn, NY

Education: Brooklyn College, B.A. cum laude, 1946; Columbia University, M.A., 1952

Died: January 1, 2005, Brooklyn, NY.

Chisholm achieved distinction as the first black woman elected to Congress, as well as the first woman to organize a major party bid for president. Her race, gender, and Caribbean heritage found some members of the civil rights and antiwar coalition questioning her capacity to succeed in that arena. But she challenged racism and sexism in the political system while enlarging the doorway of the House (and other federal institutions) to women of color.

Chisholm had a reputation, built in the New York State Assembly, for being unbought and unbossed. An advocate for the struggling African American and Puerto Rican majority of the 12th Congressional District in Brooklyn, she promoted jobs, job training, assisted childcare, and healthcare. She fought for equality of opportunity in education, employment, and housing and opposed the costly Vietnam War. “Our children, our jobless men, our deprived, rejected, and starving fellow citizens must come first,” she asserted in 1969. “I intend to vote ‘no’ on every bill that comes to the floor of this House that provides any funds for the Department of Defense” (Chisholm, 2010, p. 113). Many of her colleagues in the House considered such statements to be “politically unwise.”